Artist in Residence in Vesterålen

Call for applications 2019: Cultural Cooperation in Vesterålen is offering an Artist-in-Residence stay for two periods associated with winter and the dark season.

07.12.201808:35kultur

Call for applications 2019Cultural Cooperation in Vesterålen is offering an Artist-in-Residence stay for two periods associated with winter and the dark season. We offer free accommodation and a travel stipend in the amount of NOK 5,000 for four individual artists during the following periods:

15 January to 31 March 2019

1 October to 15 December 2019

The stay must be of at least two weeks’ duration and a maximum of four weeks within the cited periods. We offer four different residence sites distributed among four locations in Vesterålen.

Cultural Cooperation in Vesterålen is collaborating with the Vesterålen municipalities to establish a number of outdoor cultural events during the winter season. We are therefore looking for artists who are interested in working with projects that can inspire us and contribute to the process of developing outdoor meeting places.

The artists who are awarded a residency are obligated to show their appreciation to the host population in the form of a presentation. This can be a work of art, a workshop, an exhibition, a visit to local schools and so on.

AiR Vesterålen receives financial support from the Nordland County Administration.

BackgroundCultural Cooperation in Vesterålen has been the host of Artist-in-residence exchanges since 2013. AiR has previously been linked to cultural collaboration with Donegal, Ireland and with Eastern Iceland, which has involved an opportunity for artists from these two regions to have a residency with us in Vesterålen. We are now expanding this opportunity so that artists from other regions and countries may also apply for an AiR residency in Vesterålen.

About culture in Vesterålen:The municipalities of Vesterålen collaborate on joint cultural projects through Cultural Cooperation. In addition, the individual municipalities have their own broad cultural programmes specially oriented towards children and young people. Our work consists of an interaction between the public culture sector and voluntary cultural organizations. Vesterålen also has professional cultural stakeholders, including many artists and galleries. You can read more about this in our guide:

Vesterålen arranges many cultural events in the course of an average year. Some of the larger events include Vesterålen Food Festival, Fæsterålen, Sortland Jazz Festival, Summer Melbu, Storytelling Days, The Regine Days, Laterna Magica and Rock Mot Rus. We also make provisions so that the local population and visitors can enjoy the great outdoors. Among other attractions, we have signposted 650 km of nature trails of varying degrees of difficulty.

About the Vesterålen islandsVesterålen is an archipelago just north of the Lofoten islands. The Vesterålen islands are linked by handsome bridges and comprise five municipalities: Andøy, Bø, Hadsel, Sortland and Øksnes. The region has more than 30,000 inhabitants and a thriving business community primarily affiliated with the seafood industry. We are surrounded by the ocean on all sides and have dramatic, tall peaks that jut up into the sky, but there are also beautiful sandy beaches and abundant wildlife.

By virtue of the warm Gulf Stream, our climate is much milder than in other areas of the world at the same geographical latitude. In December and parts of January, the sun does not appear above the horizon in Vesterålen. The dark season is fascinating in many ways, and the northern lights and special bluish hues play magically on the snow-covered landscape. The flip-side of the dark season is the midnight sun, with light 24 hours a day from 23 March to 23 July.

Artists on a quest for inspiration have come to our part of Norway for hundreds of years. This inspiration comes primarily from Mother Nature, but also from the people living along the coast and from our way of life here in the Arctic north.